TED Talks Daily The new era of AI-powered protein design | César Ramírez-Sarmiento
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Oct 17, 2025 César Ramírez-Sarmiento, a protein engineer and 2025 TED Fellow from Santiago, explores the revolutionary impact of AI on protein design. He discusses how AI boosts success rates in creating proteins for biomedical and environmental challenges. César shares his unique journey from art to science, emphasizing creativity in problem-solving. He highlights the potential of AI-designed enzymes for cleaning up plastic waste and envisions a thriving Latin American community of protein engineers tackling regional environmental issues.
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Proteins Are Programmable Machines
- Proteins are sequences of 20 amino acids that fold into 3D shapes to dictate function.
- Designing sequences can change function and solve human problems faster than natural evolution.
AI Boosts Protein Design Success
- AI has raised protein-design success rates from ~1% to roughly 10–20%.
- That boosts the fraction of computational designs that show desired activity in the lab dramatically.
Enzymes Enable Circular Plastic Recycling
- AI-designed enzymes can decompose plastics into small molecules used to remake plastic.
- This approach aims for circular recycling where plastic becomes feedstock for new materials.